18th September 2020 PRESS RELEASE: STATUS NOW 4 ALL BACKS PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS CALLING FOR LEAVE TO REMAIN FOR UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS IN THE UK
A national Day of Action is being held this weekend to call for an end to the Government’s Hostile Environment policy and for Leave to Remain to be given to all undocumented migrants in the UK.
Regularise, one of Status Now Network’s signatories, is organising a peaceful demonstration for the rights of undocumented migrants on Saturday, 19th September. It will be held from 1pm-4pm outside 10 Downing Street to ensure the Prime Minister Boris Johnson hears our call for Status Now.
See https://m.facebook.com/events/2387705671522936? www.regularise.org
Also at 1pm on Saturday September 19th, the human rights charity RAPAR www.rapar.co.uk will be holding a demonstration outside the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Offices, Manchester M1 4AH.
This will run from 1pm-2.30pm and has been called to show solidarity with Regularise and to support the demand for Leave to Remain for undocumented migrants.
The Manchester demonstration will also be protesting about the re-opening of the UK’s Immigration Reporting Centres and against Britain First’s sustained harassment of refugees who have been placed in hotels. RAPAR is one of the organisations which have led the call for Status Now since the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a national lockdown in March.
In the Midlands, Coventry Against Racism, another Status Now Network signatory, will be demonstrating peacefully on the same day from 1pm-2pm outside Coventry Magistrates’ Courts. https://www.facebook.com/events/389886195748324/ https://www.facebook.com/carofficialgroup/?fref=tag
People at all three demonstrations will be wearing masks, using hand sanitiser and staying physically distanced.
ENDS
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19.9.2020 Morning Star: Protesters to rally across Britain in solidarity with refugees
They carried a report about Stand Up To Racism demos today in solidarity with Refugees, and included the following:
Separate demonstrations are also taking place today in London, Coventry and Manchester against Britain’s hostile environment for migrants.
Migrant-rights groups Rapar and Regularise are calling on the government to grant all undocumented migrants leave to remain.
Regularise, which is holding a demonstration outside Downing Street at 1pm, said that the Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated the suffering felt by people without status who are not entitled to public funds, housing or full access to healthcare.
The group said that giving all the right to stay in Britain would “provide the necessary protections against issues that those without status currently face such as lack of access to healthcare, which has led to preventable deaths.”
The groups are also condemning the restarting of the government’s detention and deportation regimes despite a rise in Covid cases, with Rapar protesting outside Manchester’s Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Offices at 1pm against the reopening of Immigration Reporting Centres.
Migrant Voice director Nazek Ramadan condemned the reopening of the centres, where people are required to sign in regularly and risk being detained every time they do.
Ms Ramadan said: “In-person reporting is an unnecessary and gruelling process even in normal times.
“The last few months have given people a welcome respite from the terror of being detained and deported — and that the Home Office are now restarting this, despite rising Covid infections, suggests that looking tough on immigration is more important to them than keeping people safe.”
Today’s protests come amid searing criticism of the Home Office, following the publication of a report by MPs which concluded that the department has based immigration policies on “prejudice” instead of relying on evidence.
The public accounts committee said that Home Secretary Priti Patel’s department was unaware of the damage caused by policy failures on “both the illegal and legitimate migrant populations.” [Status Now note: we do not accept the term ‘illegal migrant’. Some people are ‘undocumented’]
Migrant-rights groups said they were not surprised by the report’s findings.
Bail for Immigration Detainees research and policy co-ordinator Rudy Schulkind said: “MPs have found that the Home Office risks making decisions based on ‘anecdote, assumption and prejudice’. We see evidence of this every day in the way that people in immigration detention are treated.
“Our clients are locked up without a trial at the discretion of Home Office civil servants, with no idea of when or where they will be released to. It is astounding that this department is trusted with such wide-ranging powers of detention and deportation that it can use with very little scrutiny.
“How many more scathing reports are needed before we see meaningful change in the government’s approach to immigration enforcement?”
You can write to your MP about this